The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4229 Message #23462
Posted By: Paul Stamler
10-Mar-98 - 01:51 PM
Thread Name: pentatonic songs
Subject: RE: pentatonic songs
The "Souling Song" recorded by the Watersons (and popularized in a "modernized" version by PP&M) goes pentatonic songs two better: it only contains three notes. If sung in the key of C, these would be C, D and Eb. (The song begins, "A soul, a soul, a soul-cake/Please, good missis, a soul-cake/Apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry/Any good thing to make us merry/One for Peter, two for Paul/Three for him that made us all".) It can be found on the Watersons' excellent recording of seasonal and ritual songs, "Frost and Fire" (Topic, now augmented with some shape-note songs from another recording.)
Peace. Paul